Growing plants indoors in pots is a rapidly increasing pastime for thousands of people. Early plant pots, and they still constitute the majority, simply consist of a pot to hold the soil, a drain hole in the bottom and a saucer to catch the excess water poured in from the top.
Early attempts to replace the standard clay pot resulted in providing large reservoirs of water which continuously supplied water for several days. Several recent pots follow this teaching. These reservoir pots have relatively small volumes of soil to total pot volume ratios. Examples are as follows:
______________________________________ U.S. PAT. NO. GRANTED: INVENTOR: ______________________________________ 135,271 Jan. 28, 1973 M. B. Gould 2,344,202 March 14, 1944 E. Carlson 3,552,058 Jan. 5, 1971 J. C. Fici 4,160,342 July 10, 1979 G. M. Dryer 4,198,784 April 22, 1980 H. L. Sokert 4,216,623 August 12, 1980 S. M. Silver ______________________________________
Since over watering is a common problem, a wide variety of patented containers were created. Examples of draining pots are set forth below:
______________________________________ U.S. PAT. NO. GRANTED: INVENTOR: ______________________________________ 1,391,353 Sept. 20, 1921 R. D. Wells 2,057,972 Oct. 20, 1936 C. E. Pieck 2,486,932 Nov. 1, 1949 F. S. Elliott 4,092,804 June 6, 1978 D. A. Morris, et al 4,145,841 March 27, 1979 J. C. Woolpert 4,224,764 Sept. 30, 1980 T. Dziewulski, et al ______________________________________
The need for aeration of the root system was recognized and provided by the following patents: Phillips, U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,147, 1977 and Staby U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,097, 1979.
The most common practice of storing water and then supplying water to the roots is by humidified pots. Examples are as follows:
______________________________________ U.S. PAT. NO. GRANTED: INVENTOR: ______________________________________ 661,411 Nov. 6, 1900 Lonitz 1,533,342 April 14, 1925 Schein 1,778,150 Oct. 1930 Freeburg 2,387,340 Oct. 23, 1945 Moriarty 3,965,614 Nov. 28, 1975 Kienholz 4,077,159 March 7, 1978 Haglund French Patent: 1,168,485 Dec. 9, 1958 Ferrand ______________________________________
Another humidified pot is Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,235 with soil completely filling the pot and holes in the bottom so the roots grow into and are immersed in the reservoir water.
The humidified pots unfortunately do not provide enough moisture to the roots to sustain the plants and some inventors have provided wicks to transport the water from the reservoir to the soil surrounding the roots. Examples are U.S. Pat. No. 320,588, Rhoads and British No. 863,177, Mar. 15, 1961, Szekely.
An unusual method of storing water in an adsorbent material outside the inner pot and feeding it slowly through slots in the inner pot is taught by C. F. Wilberscied, July 4, 1950, U.S. Pat. No. 2,514,269.
Still another method of introducing water to the root system from a reservoir is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 2,865,137, Longacre, Dec. 23, 1958. A "capillary" method is used in which a small tube filled with rock wood extends into the water reservoir. An opening in the bottom of the tube permits water to enter at the bottom of the tube and rise up through the rock wool to a small opening in the bottom of an elevated pot.
Recently, self controlled watering planter devices have been disclosed, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,815, Secrest.
None of the prior art patents, however, disclose a planter with a water reservoir which initially provides the correct amount of water to a relatively large root zone area for a relatively long length of time and then serves as a drain to remove excess water.